May General Revenue Fund Collections Enough to Cover the State’s Bills

With only a half month left in this fiscal year, it appears the state government will be able to pay its bills, but just barely. The May General Revenue Fund (GRF) collections missed the official estimate by 1.5 percent, but enough money was received to cover borrowed funds which must be repaid by the end of June.

“While May’s collections were still below the monthly estimate, total collections are now on a more stable footing and, with only one month left in FY 2017, we are clearly on schedule to repay the money we were forced to borrow this fiscal year without further cuts,” said Secretary of Finance, Administration and Information Technology Preston L. Doerflinger.

GRF in May totaled $385.5 million. That missed the mark by $6.1 million. So far, this fiscal year, GRF collections have totaled $4.5 billion which is 4.2 percent below estimates.

It appears the state will be able to pay back money borrowed from the Rainy Day Fund and other funds and avoid further cuts to state agencies.

“If this trend continues, we anticipate ending the year in a better position than was predicted in February, which means possibly returning some of the monies pulled from agency budgets because of the revenue failure declaration. This should be some small consolation to agencies that have taken additional cuts in the FY 2018 budget. An over-reliance on one-time funding sources and legislators’ inability to pass significant structural budget reform that adopts new recurring revenue sources promises to make the upcoming fiscal year a cash-flow challenge,” Doerflinger said. “We will undoubtedly be forced to borrow again next fiscal year, and many of the sources we’ve had to tap in the past are running dry.”

It was revealed in February, Doerflinger had borrowed millions from various funds to pay the state’s obligations. The Office of Management and Enterprise Services (OMES) has the right to do so as long as the money is returned to those accounts by the end of the current fiscal year. The total amount borrowed is $327 million. Of that, nearly $241 million was borrowed from the Rainy Day Fund.